Pool goes up on Saturday!

[Purple]

I have a giant pallet in my driveway and we’re assembling on Saturday!

For those of you who’ve build a pool, how long should I plan on assembly taking? We’ll have 4-5 adults and it’s going on concrete so there’s no ground leveling. It is an 18’ round by 54” deep Saltwater LX.

 

[Bosley]

Looking forward to seeing the construction process! Have you already done your ground work?

 

[Purple]

Looking forward to seeing the construction process! Have you already done your ground work?

It’s going on a concrete pad, but the pad is all clean and ready to roll

 

[CJadamec]

It sounds like an exciting weekend hopefully the weather cooperates.

If none of you have ever set one up before it will take some time. At least all day.

I know its a little late in the game to be bringing this up but, concrete patios are never as level or smooth as you think they are.

You may want to reconsider how level you think that concrete pad is unless you have actually checked it. With a hard sided pool if you are off of level on the uprights by more than an inch nothing is going to line up correctly. It will be a fight to get the wall in place and the seam bolted. A high spot in the concrete anywhere along where the wall sits is going to ruin your day

All the uprights need to be firmly supported on the ground after the wall is put in and the top rail is on. If any of them aren't touching the ground you risk buckling the wall when you fill the pool with water.

Also what are you putting down under the liner. If you went with a beaded liner they cut to account for 2-3 inches of sand base and 4 inch coving. A beaded liner might not have enough stretch if nothing is under the liner.

If you went with an overlap liner you should be ok, but you should at least have a gorilla pad between the liner and concrete.

 

[Purple]

I’ll check the concrete for level. It’s the only place we can put it

I bought a gorilla pad and foam coving. The liner is a unibead—hope this will work. If not, maybe I can raise the floor with house foam stuff??

Thanks for the heads up that it is an all-day project. Sounds like I might need to hire some extra people (we don’t have installers in my area.)

 

[splashpad]

I bought a gorilla pad and foam coving. The liner is a unibead—hope this will work. If not, maybe I can raise the floor with house foam stuff??

If it's more than 1" off, The better thing would be to build up the low side with concrete mix, but that would require extra prep & work.

Check for level and let us know (with pics if possible) and some can offer further ideas/tips.

 

[Purple]

I’ll check it. We just took down a 15’ intex that used to be on that same pad, and the intex was level so I’m hopeful.

I didn’t account for the liner issue though.

 

[splashpad]

I’ll check it. We just took down a 15’ intex that used to be on that same pad, and the intex was level so I’m hopeful.

I didn’t account for the liner issue though.

The frame pools are more forgiving than the hard wall

 

[CJadamec]

You can always just add sand under your liner like you would normally do, that will solve the liner fit issue.

Rigid foam insulation will work under the liner to raise the floor. It will also give you a much nicer feeling bottom of the pool. Its not a cheap option. If you use rigid foam it needs to be installed as tightly as possible with no gaps between the boards. Each seam where two boards touch should be taped over with high quality duct tape. If there is any gap in the foam the weight of the water will force the liner down into that crack, that could rip the liner.

Same with using foam coving. The coving needs to be firmly attached to the wall with no gaps between cove pieces, the wall, or the floor.

Think of the liner like a water balloon held in your hand. If you hold your fingers tight the balloon stays put. If you open your fingers up the balloon instantly tries to push right thru them.

Lots of people have successfully used foam under their pools so it can be done. You just need to "mind the gap".

Its a good sign that your intex pool sat on the pad well. Soft sided pools with sectional frames can tolerate a lot of unevenness in the ground. We've seen people here routinely set them up and use them for years with it being grossly out of level. Its the nature of their design.

If you run into a high spot that is a problem you can always rent an electric chipping hammer and chip out some of the concrete so the wall can sit level.

Low spots can be filled with mortar. Its cheap and easy to work with. It will also harden quickly.

If you can start unpacking the pool now you can set up the top rail and mark your upright locations which will give you time to figure out if you need to do extra leveling work. A little bit of planning now will make Saturday be a much more enjoyable time.

 

[Purple]

Is 2” foam board sufficient?

 

[CJadamec]

It should be. Typically the sand bed under the liner is 2-3 inches. The cove areas are deeper but you have extra foam for that.

 

[kimkats]

In to watch this one! Wishing for video of it being done to see the grown adults wrestling with this thing!! LOL LOTS of adult words will be said I am sure!

Kim

 

[Purple]

This has been several weeks of legitimately the most difficult and terrible project ever. But...it’s coming along!

 

[kimkats]

Well it looks awesome!! What is left to go?

So tell us about the terrible and difficult part of it so others can learn from you.

Kim

 

[Purple]

Well it looks awesome!! What is left to go?

So tell us about the terrible and difficult part of it so others can learn from you.

Kim

The terrible part was trying to keep the rail in place on a concrete pad—I definitely would recommend not installing on concrete but we didn’t have any other place that would work.

Setting the wall in the rail and trying to bolt it together was awful, as the rail would move or wall would pop out and we’d have to get it circle again and then the foam would shift—ughhhh. Those walls are heavy! I ever did this again, I would save up and fly in an installer from out of state rather than do this. I also bought the wrong 2” foam and should have gotten the hard pink kind that’s less messy to cut.

Putting the uprights and top rail on took some time, but wasn’t that bad. The liner looks nice. Skimmer, pump, solar dome was pretty straightforward.

Found a used waterslide locally, painted it, and built a platform for it yesterday.

Remaining steps:
1. Build second platform to put the slide ladder on.
2. Finish building confer plastic stairs (this has been a breeze so far.)
3. Build a small deck to access the pool from the outside (this will be challenging due to the terrain near the pool, but we’ll figure something out).
4. Test the water and add chemicals.
5. Hook up camera over pool area.
5. Swim!

I still need to get a solar reel and add some outdoor lighting and lay down some artificial grass and pavers for a seating area.

 

[kimkats]

Ahhhhhh so the normal *joys* of putting up a wall of steel!! Every tiny breeze makes it move!!

That slides looks awesome!! I bet you can't wait to slide down it! How will you run water to it?

Kim

 

[CJadamec]

It looks very nice, the hard work pays off in the end when you are floating around peacefully with a beverage in your hand.

 

[Wobblerlorri]

It looks very nice, the hard work pays off in the end when you are floating around peacefully with a beverage in your hand.

That's what I keep telling my son and husband. They just grunt at me.